Various forms of trolling devices or harnesses for fish bait have been proposed. By and large such devices have been designed to hold the fish bait essentially straight so that it will appear to be swimming when pulled through the water. Illustrative of such prior proposals are the devices shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,781,605, 2,871,611 and 3,839,814. In spite of the efforts of prior patentees to make the fish bait in their respective devices simulate swimming when the devices are drawn through water, actual fishing results have failed to come up to expectations. Moreover, placement of the bait in prior devices has been generally troublesome and in some cases sufficiently difficult that a template is used to facilitate the baiting operation as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 2,880,545.
Contrary to the prevalent notion that fish bait is most enticing if it simulates a normal swimming fish, it has been discovered that such bait is much more attractive to other fish if the fish used as bait appears to be injured or moribund and is struggling to swim normally.
Accordingly, a principal object of this invention is to provide a trolling harness for fish bait which makes the fish used as bait appear to be having difficulty in swimming when the harness is drawn through water.
Another object is to provide such trolling harness which is simple in construction and in application of fish bait thereto.
These and other objects and advantages of the invention will be apparent from the description which follows.